A team that plays relentlessly attacking football under Roberto De Zerbi has been piling up some extraordinary resultsThey were playing Chumbawamba on repeat in Reggio Emilia again on Wednesday night. Sassuolo have used the late-90s anthem Tubthumping as their goal music ever since they moved into the Mapei Stadium in 2013. The song, with its “I get knocked down, but I get up again” chorus, was intended by the English band as a celebration of “the resilience of ordinary people”. This week, even more than usual, it felt like a fitting choice. Tubthumping played over and over as Sassuolo came from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 against Juventus in the second half.Resilient? Yes, you could say that of a team...
A no-look penalty and another Monchi recruitment masterclass leaves Sevilla close to a Champions League returnLucas Ocampos was looking the other way when Sevilla scored the penalty that virtually secured their return to the Champions League last night – and he was the one taking it. The man who had racked up 13 goals and one last minute save, the forward who had scored one and stopped another just six days earlier, pulling on the goalie top and pulling off a 101st minute rescue mission, was on the spot again. Bouncing the ball and beaming, if the responsibility was his the appearance belonged to a man without a care in the world. What happened next did, too.There were a few...
Barcelona’s other team were relegated at an empty Camp Nou, a cold and cruel final blow to a season that crumbled painfullyReial Club Deportiu Espanyol left the first division to the opening bars of “Cant del Barça”, the anthem of the club that has cast a shadow over them for so long. It was, their director general said, “a dark night”, although it could have been even darker. Relegated after 26 years and at the Camp Nou of all places, symbolism in them taking their first steps into segunda at their rivals’ home, this hurt. But at least there was virtually no one there to see it, no salt for their wounds, players slipping off silently when the end came.As...
An erratic side have been flawless since the league turned into a mini-knockout contest. Now the writing seems on the wallCasemiro couldn’t look but pretty much everyone else could see. Crouched right on the centre spot, the Real Madrid midfielder turned his back and brought his hands to his face. To the left, Éder Militão stood by him, gently laying a hand on his shoulder. Fifty metres away Athletic’s Iker Muniain was pacing, blood boiling. “Explain it, then,” he was demanding. “Always the effing same. Not even you lot can understand it.” And to the left of him Sergio Ramos was waiting to take a penalty, blood running cold. He was 12 yards from goal or “11 metres closer to...
The Frenchman’s assist has put Real Madrid on course for the title, but it wasn’t even the most dazzling piece of skill on an extraordinary weekend in SpainSometimes there’s so much brilliance you don’t even know where to begin, let alone which words to use. Stendhal Syndrome, they call it, which is a disappointingly functional phrase to define those moments when you feel overwhelmed by beauty, and Karim Benzema expressed it better. On the pitch most of all, but off it too. Not when he said pfff – because what else was he supposed to say – but when he smiled, shrugged a little and said: “that’s football.” The afternoon before, Fyodor Smolov had said it too without uttering a...